Noometry

Model comparison

GPT-5.4 mini vs MiniMax-M2.1

GPT-5.4 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.8 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 3.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.4 mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 21 shared benchmarks.

GPT-5.4 mini OpenAI

44.8

Rank #69 Confirmed

MiniMax-M2.1 MiniMax

38.4

Rank #177 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.4 mini scores higher in 8 categories and MiniMax-M2.1 in 1 category; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where GPT-5.4 mini leads 30.3 to 15.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 61.8% for GPT-5.4 mini and 11.2% for MiniMax-M2.1.
  • MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $4.50 for GPT-5.4 mini.
  • GPT-5.4 mini accepts more context: 400K tokens versus 205K.
  • MiniMax-M2.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-5.4 miniMiniMax-M2.1
ProviderOpenAIMiniMax
Noometry Index44.838.4
Released2026-03-172025-12-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window400K205K
Max output128K131K
Input $ / M tokens$0.75$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$4.50$1.20
Results tracked4622

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Category by category

Coding GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 45.0 (#67), MiniMax-M2.1: 40.1 (#132)

BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena WebDev13971384
LMArena Coding14381421
ALE-Bench1,189623.83
FrontierCode27%—
SciCode49.9%—
WeirdML60.3%—

Agentic & Tool Use GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 29.6 (#74), MiniMax-M2.1: 27.7 (#91)

BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniMiniMax-M2.1
Terminal-Bench—36.6%
DeepResearch Bench36.3%—

Reasoning GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 30.3 (#77), MiniMax-M2.1: 15.8 (#301)

BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniMiniMax-M2.1
NYT Connections (extended)61.8%11.2%
LMArena Hard Prompts14241410
ARC-AGI-218.9%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark37.9%—
ARC-AGI-163.7%—
CritPt10%—
Chess Puzzles24%—
Thematic Generalization61.7%—
Mystery Game Puzzles11%—
DTBench80%—
LMCA40.8%—
Epoch Capabilities Index148.83—
ForecastBench57—

Math GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 45.4 (#63), MiniMax-M2.1: 35.6 (#142)

BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Math14181396
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)51.2%—
FrontierMath Tier 49.8%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202588.9%—
ProofBench21%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)28.3%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)2.1%—

Knowledge GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 51.4 (#62), MiniMax-M2.1: 37.7 (#143)

BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniMiniMax-M2.1
Vectara Hallucination Rate5.5%11.8%
LMArena Expert14341432
GPQA Diamond86.9%—
SimpleQA Verified29.4%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GPT-5.4 mini: 39.0 (#51), MiniMax-M2.1: —

BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Vision1245—

Multilingual GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 52.1 (#94), MiniMax-M2.1: 50.2 (#123)

BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Non-English14051378
LMArena Chinese14461430
LMArena French14401405
LMArena German14071380
LMArena Japanese13751287
LMArena Korean13691297
LMArena Russian14171386
LMArena Spanish14031396

Instruction Following Too close to call

GPT-5.4 mini: 74.3 (#99), MiniMax-M2.1: 74.0 (#108)

BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Instruction Following14051399

Long Context Too close to call

GPT-5.4 mini: 42.9 (#107), MiniMax-M2.1: 43.2 (#98)

BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Longer Query14071416

Writing & Preference GPT-5.4 mini leads

GPT-5.4 mini: 64.2 (#56), MiniMax-M2.1: 58.5 (#114)

BenchmarkGPT-5.4 miniMiniMax-M2.1
LMArena Text14111392
LMArena Creative Writing13701362
LMArena Multi-Turn14291396
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1665—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-5.4 mini better than MiniMax-M2.1?

GPT-5.4 mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.8 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M2.1 costs 3.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.4 mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.4 mini or MiniMax-M2.1?

MiniMax-M2.1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; GPT-5.4 mini lists at $0.75 and $4.50.

Is GPT-5.4 mini or MiniMax-M2.1 better for coding?

GPT-5.4 mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 45.0 versus 40.1 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-5.4 mini does, with 400K tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do GPT-5.4 mini and MiniMax-M2.1 share?

21 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.4 mini has 46 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M2.1 has 22.

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